Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Philippa Werry reports on Bill Manhire's poetry masterclass at the Festival


What is a masterclass? How does a workshop actually work? This "live poetry lab" at Writers and Readers Week gave us some insight into what happens, although as Chris Price (left) pointed out in her introduction, the workshop process in a creative writing class usually develops trust over a period of time and doesn't take place in front of a theatre full of strangers. However the audience at the Embassy was very supportive of the three brave writers whose work had been selected by Bill Manhire out of 250 poems submitted ("lots of really good stuff," he said. "Lots of really dodgy stuff.") These weren't necessarily the best poems, as Bill explained, but ones that he found interesting for a variety of reasons.

Copies of the poems had been distributed in a handout, and Chris Price orchestrated the process whereby each poet read his or her poem, Bill Manhire commented on it, and so did the other two poets up on stage. Then the audience was invited to contribute any thoughts or ideas, and finally the poet was allowed to reply, explain or simply thank everyone for their feedback.  

Alistair Galbraith (right), musician and Arts Foundation laureate, started off with a beautiful reading of his poem Gliding, which Bill described as having a lovely "swooping" motion. Vida Zelenka, originally from Canada and now living in Christchurch, followed with This is another church, a poem in five couplets that Bill said "looks secure and tidy but throws us off balance in little ways." 

Lastly, Jo Morris, an English teacher from Hastings currently studying for a Master in Creative Writing at VUW, read Accompanying person (Anaesthetic Conference, Wellington Town Hall.) This poem was one that people reacted to strongly. Bill felt it had "extraordinary potential" but needed a rethink, and gave a number of suggestions. Some in the audience loved it and relished the medical terminology; others found the imagery frightening and alienating.   

The focus was on these three poems, but the discussion ranged widely: how to find the "voice" of a piece of work; how space can add meaning; the difference a short or a long line makes; how shape matters. How one word or one line can hijack a poem, stop it uncomfortably in its tracks or send it off in a surprising new direction. How poetry can be, in Paul Valery's words, "a prolonged hesitation between sound and sense" - and how poets learn to hesitate in that territory. 

Philippa Werry




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